Control
Control of paratuberculosis is challenging and should not be underestimated. Different control measures can be applied, varying according to type of herd, animal health regulations and economical conditions (Juste and Perez, 2011; Whittington et al., 2019).
Control programmes are rarely successful in eliminating the infection from a herd or flock in the short term without a comprehensive and costly programme. Successful prevention and control depend on animal health authorities and livestock industries acquiring a good understanding of the nature and epidemiology of infection, and of the application of tools for diagnosis and control (Kennedy and Benedictus, 2001).13.9.1 Environment and management
Management is considered to be the most useful tool for controlling paratuberculosis within domestic livestock herds (Harris and Barletta, 2001). In particular populations in endemic areas, paratuberculosis has been eradicated by different sanitizing approaches in goat herds (Lindheim and Solverod, 2014; TINE Radgiving, Helsetjenesten for geit, 2016; Gavin etal., 2018). Faecal shedders should be removed, and flocks should not allow introduction of goats with a higher probability of paratuberculosis infection than their own. Care of newborn kids, separation from older animals, feeding of paratuberculosis- free colostrum and milk, a clean environment and adequate feeding of growing kids are among the most important management tools to control paratuberculosis within a flock. This was recently shown in a successful Norwegian sanitation programme (Lindheim and Solverod, 2014, 2016; TINE Radgiving, Helsetjenesten for geit, 2016), in which goat kids were removed from their dams at birth, fed paratuberculosis free cow's milk and reared in a presumed MAP- free environment.
13.9.2 Vaccination
Currently available paratuberculosis vaccines for goats are inactivated whole-cell vaccines (Corpa et al., 2000b).
Live vaccines have previously been used (Saxegaard and Fodstad, 1985).Existing vaccines can delay the onset of clinical symptoms, improve body weight, and reduce mortality and faecal shedding of bacteria, but they do not protect against infection. Currently used vaccines can also result in severe injection site reactions (Rosseels and Huygen, 2008; Bastida and Juste, 2011). A number of different vaccines have been tested, with variable protection, in order to achieve improved protection. These include vaccines based on cell wall-deficient MAP bacteria (Hines et al., 2007b), recombinant antigen vaccines (Kathaperumal et al., 2009), live attenuated mutant vaccines (Park et al., 2011; Faisal et al., 2013a; Hines et al., 2014; Shippy et al., 2017) and attenuated Salmonella strains expressing a fusion product of MAP antigens (Faisal et al., 2013b). So far, none of these has reached commercialization.
Vaccination is generally recommended in young animals, but vaccination of adult goats in infected flocks can reduce the number of animals developing clinical disease (Corpa et al., 2000c). Vaccinated animals develop antibodies that can interfere with existing serodiagnostic tests for paratuberculosis and they can become reactive in the tuberculin skin test, used for the control of bovine tuberculosis (Hines et al., 2007b; Rosseels and Huygen, 2008).
13.10